The Lakeland Police Department refused for almost two days this week to release a robbery suspect's full arrest report, one of the most common public records produced by law enforcement.

By MATTHEW PLEASANTTHE LEDGER

LAKELAND | The Lakeland Police Department refused for almost two days this week to release a robbery suspect's full arrest report, one of the most common public records produced by law enforcement.LPD finally released the arrest report Tuesday evening, only after multiple requests from a Ledger reporter and ultimately Gregg Thomas, a Tampa media lawyer who represents the newspaper.The arrest involved Tyren Malik Sanders, 18, who Lakeland police detectives allege worked with three others to rob a check-cashing business at gunpoint in March. According to his arrest report, officers charged him Saturday.When a Ledger reporter asked for Sanders' arrest report Monday morning, the department only released a single page listing the suspect's information and charges. Roger Mallory, LPD's lawyer, withheld subsequent pages that detailed the crime that Sanders is accused of committing.Mallory argued through an agency spokesman that the pages were considered criminal investigative information, which state public records law allows the police to withhold in certain circumstances.Florida records law says all documents given to an arrested person — or required to be given to an arrested person — aren't considered investigative information. According to Florida's Rules of Criminal Procedure, a copy of a complaint must be provided to a defendant at their first appearance in court, Thomas pointed out in an email to Mallory.Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee, said an arrest report would be a public record."The law is quite clear that anything that's given or required to be given to a defendant is subject to public disclosure, absent another exemption," she said.If the defendant has had a first appearance before a judge, officials "have to give him the complaint so he can enter an intelligent and informed plea," she said. "Therefore, the complaint is subject to public disclosure."Mallory eventually released the full arrest report Tuesday evening. By that time, The Ledger had already received the record from another agency.The case marks at least the fourth time since December the agency has attempted to withhold public records.In December, the department claimed it didn't have records requested by The Ledger related to an aggravated battery case. It wasn't until a reporter, who had obtained them from another source, sent a photo of the records to the department's lawyer that LPD acknowledged the case existed.The department denied The Ledger records again in February related to a man serving a life sentence for killing his wife. The department said the records didn't exist. But The Ledger, like in the previous case, had obtained the records from another source. The department later blamed its aging computer records system for problems finding the records.The department also refused to give a full report after its April 17 arrest of Greg Robinson, the department's crime-prevention supervisor. He's accused of taking $1,000 in gift cards from the agency's Christmas program for disadvantaged families.Earlier this year, a grand jury began investigating LPD following a story published in The Ledger that described problems getting records from the department.No criminal charges were filed as a result of the grand jury's investigation into LPD. However, a detailed report of the jury's findings was issued Feb. 14, but it remains under seal.